Paul Frezza is raising the bar. The coach and owner of GOB Gymnastics, Dance and Cheerleading will soon be adding Grips Gymnastics to his club located at 142 Harbor Pointe, Ortonville.
The new program, planned for spring, will be part of the USA Gymnastics League and is for girls who aspire to achieve high levels, such as an athletic scholarship or the Olympics. It is planned for the spring and Frezza’s son Garrett, a gymnast as well as full-time instructor and operations manager, will head the program.
‘Grips is for highly competitive, determined, dedicated and talented girls,? said Frezza, who has owned the gymnastics center at its current location for six years and has been in business in the area for a total of 13 years. Frezza has coached gymnastics for 34 years.
GOB (Groveland-Ortonville-Brandon) Gymnastics will continue at the center. Part of the Michigan Recreational Gymnastics League, the focus of GOB Gymnastics, says Frezza, is fun? to find out if the kids like the sport, without the pressure.
‘The goal of other gymnastics schools is to create a name for themselves by creating great gymnasts,? said Frezza. ‘My goal is to create well-rounded kids. I want to help parents raise confident children with great self-esteem.?
GOB Gymnastics accepts students as young as 2?-years-old as long as they’re potty-trained. In the center’s preschool-age classes, students develop motor skills and also, the brain.
‘Exercise at a young age develops the brain faster,? said Frezza. ‘If they can learn gymnastics at a young age, they will be helped in cognitive learning.. It helps brain development by increasing blood flow to the brain and giving it a larger learning capacity.?
Adults can also take gymnastics lessons. Frezza recalled a 60-year-old man who came in wanting to learn a backflip that he could use while skydiving.
The 10,000 square-feet center has various gymnastics apparatus, including balance beams, parallel bars, high bars, uneven bars, trampolines, a spring floor, and big inground pits filled with foam blocks for kids to tumble into.
GOB has 500 students and 15 instructors. Besides Frezza and his son Garrett, family instructors include Frezza’s wife Julie, daughter Amanda and son Paul, Jr.
Gymnastics skills are not the only skills taught at the center.
Dance lessons include tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop and Irish dancing and the center has cheerleading, too.
Frezza said GOB has always had a close relationship with Brandon Schools. Instructors at the gym have taught varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders from Brandon High School, as well as Brandon Middle School cheerleaders. The school squads had their best competitive seasons ever after GOB instruction, said Frezza.
In cheerleading classes, students learn to tumble, do back bends, walk overs, back handsprings and backtucks.
The gym also has its own competitive cheer squad, with cheerleaders aged 5 to 18, the GOB Cheer Invasion. The Cheer Invasion continues to train to compete in the Universal Cheer Association.
Cheerleading and Dance, call (248) 627-6317